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Torture Memo Architect Returns to Boalt

Just saw that CNN has a correspondent outside UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall (School of Law) today, reporting on protests by alumni, students and others against the return of John Yoo to the classroom. Yoo worked for the Bush administration from 2001 to 2003, when he helped craft legal theories for water torture and other harsh interrogation techniques. A good article on Yoo’s return to Berkeley is on the Harper’s Magazine website today, and is found here. I first learned about Yoo in my constitutional law class, when we watched an episode of PBS’s Frontline called Cheney’s Law. You can watch the episode here, and I’d highly recommend it if you have some spare time. It won a 2007 Peabody Award. It’s brief description:

For three decades Vice President Dick Cheney conducted a secretive, behind-closed-doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power. Finally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy — without congressional approval or judicial review.

Probably a good piece to refer back to once Cheney’s memoirs come out, which should be interesting by themselves for supposedly attacking President Bush. In any case, I didn’t realize that Yoo was actually in some legal trouble. He’s the subject of a pending criminal investigation in Spain, his torture dealings could be examined by a special prosecutor appointed by the Attorney General, and a Justice Department professional responsibility report could open Yoo up to disciplinary action by bar associations.

The CNN report said that there is currently a long waitlist for Yoo’s civil procedure class for the Fall semester. We’ll just have to see if there are any disruptions once that class gets underway, similar to the disruption Yoo encountered in the Spring, when he taught at Chapman University: